Hello Kjell! your word "bewarb" is the past tense of "bewerben". In the context you mention it means = to seek to obtain, to seek to acquire, to solicit, even to court (a woman for a wife). Modern term might also be "to advertise" in some ways. In other words, your Bernhart Wunderlich got busy to "court" everyone connected with said Bauernhof Friedberg ob Meilen by letting them know of his interest in said property. Then after 4 long years in 1593 he was finally able to purchase it. If you recognize that a word is a Verb, it usually pays to look up "verb conjugations" in a good dictionary and you may there see the odd form your verb may have been "conjugated into". It may look quite different and unrecognizable in its conjugated form. This is true also in all romance languages. As for "Scandihoovian" languages ..... only you can say ;-) . Hanneli My husbands' paternals are OLSEN from Nysveen, Ringsaker, Hedmark and TRONSTAD from Enger, Ringsaker Veldre, Hedmark. Any relation? ----- Original Message ----- From: Kjell Ove Hattrem <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, August 21, 2002 6:19 AM Subject: [SWITZ] "Bewarb" > Dear list members, > > I have run into a German word I can't seem to fathom the historical > context of: "bewarb". >